Tuesday, July 22, 2014

The Palladium is def one of the more interesting new hotel spaces, having dined at their other restaurants i was happy to accept their invite to check out their new Indian restaurant.

The space is what you would expect from an upscale fine dine, although they fortunately don't go all native.

Kim's Game, named after Kipling's great novel, was a little too sweet, a dash of bitters would have perhaps tightened it up.

i had asked for an old fashioned but they got me a whiskey sour which was just as well because this one was pretty terrific.

the amuse bouche was a little moong dal bhajiya, which i am not personally a big fan off.

the lotus stem tikki thing was pretty awesome. i have seen a lot of lotus in asian cooking and only the more courageous or high end Indian cuisine restaurants will bring lotus stems to the fore.

the gucchi ki tikki was brilliant, there was a really strong after taste of mushroom which was pretty terrific and one doesn't see mushrooms in this form very often.

We got tasting portions of a terrific black dal which was enjoyable. There was a kalonji wala baigan which was in near perfect imitation of a mirchi ka salan . There was a paneer khada masala was spicy and pretty good as was the Jaipuri aloo.

The purvanchal ka saag i didnt like much because i am not a saag guy.

Their selection of breads is also pretty impressive, the garlic naan was terrific and the zaffrani taftan is something i haven't had before. the warqi malai paratha was a little sweet.

the biryani was pretty decent and went well with the salan and the daal. The burhani raita though was not so great.

the rabdi was okay but the khubani ka meetha was tops.

Overall, the food is pretty good, they could do with a slightly wider selection, i find it slightly limited at this point. The dishes over all are not heavy on the gravy or cream but a lot dryer which is a positive change. A comparable meal anywhere else would leave one feeling like a beached whale.

Although execution is different to your regular North Indian fine dines, I also think that they played it safe with the menu, there are really no Raj era dishes despite the theme which i think is an opportunity lost.

However The Sahib Room stands out in what is a very competitive fine dine space.